. IIG. 2.âA MODERN GLIDER. Shoning the type of couutrj' suitable for gliiling. the numerous articles on gliding which have been published recently. It is not proposed to deal here at any length with the work of Wilbur and OrvUle Wright which eventu- ally led to the successful development of the aeroplane as we now know it, since a detailed account alreadv exists in a readable and accessible form.' But readers of Discovery may probably not be aware of the fact that in 1911 Orville \\'right set up a world's record for soaring by remaining in the air over the same spot for 10 minutes i se
. IIG. 2.âA MODERN GLIDER. Shoning the type of couutrj' suitable for gliiling. the numerous articles on gliding which have been published recently. It is not proposed to deal here at any length with the work of Wilbur and OrvUle Wright which eventu- ally led to the successful development of the aeroplane as we now know it, since a detailed account alreadv exists in a readable and accessible form.' But readers of Discovery may probably not be aware of the fact that in 1911 Orville \\'right set up a world's record for soaring by remaining in the air over the same spot for 10 minutes i second, which possibly remains unequalled as a demonstration of control by all the long gliding and circling flights, up to three hours in duration, made in Germany during August this year. The improvement in performance, so far as time 1 The Life and Work of Wilbur Wright, published by the Royal -Aeronautical Society, London. wing-forms or the amount of resistance offered by different-shaped bodies. And yet these are points of vital importance to the gliding angle of the machine, which decides how many feet it will tra^â el forward for each foot it drops towards the earth under the influence of gravity. In the average aeroplane of to-day this rate of descent, with engine cut-off, is in the neighbourhood of i in 11, while some of the most successful recent German gliders are said to have a gliding angle of i in 16 in calm air compared with the I in 6 of Lilienthal. In its simplest form gliding is analogous to " coasting " on a bicycle down a steep hill, the slope being provided in the case of the glider by the passage of the air along the wings. In the more complicated examples of gliding flight it is important to remember this cardinal principle ; that the machine is always gliding downwards through the
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